Storytelling skills

No matter if you write a thesis, a scientific paper or an article for a newspaper, the messages you try to convey to your audience are always received easier if they are embedded in a story. But what makes a (good) scientific story?

In this interdisciplinary workshop we will first learn the most important elements that make up good stories, and also analyze the role of your putative audiences, and how to catch their attention. In the second part, we will apply these learned lessons on science by trying to tell the same scientific story to different audiences, such as a peer-reviewed journal or a broad lay public.

You will thus learn:

Basic storytelling concepts in general (and for science)

Important science writing rules

How to apply the learned concepts to science writing by identifying and constructing a scientific story for your target audience

How to write for different audiences

Trainer
Mirko Bischofberger moves at the boundaries of science communication, science policy – and filmmaking. Parallel to his science studies he was active as a science journalist for the renowned Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung, and worked as a Scientific Advisor for the Swiss Parliament, the Swiss National Science Foundation and the EPFL after that. Mirko is also a respected filmmaker and storyteller in the Swiss film community, and he recently shot the new official image film for the University of Zurich. He studied at ETH Zurich and holds a PhD from the EPFL in Lausanne.